Overcoming My Snake Phobia

Hi, I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, soul nourishing romantic women’s fiction with light paranormal elements. My stories show you what life could be like if you had a place like The Circle where you are unconditionally accepted, supported and loved. And where, with this support, you make choices to overcome the darkest nights of your life to choose love and light.

As you can see by now, this month’s theme/topic is Phobias: ours or our characters. My characters have their issues but not phobias. So if I’m going to stay on topic, I need to look inward.

In elementary school, a group of boys chased me with a garter snake threatening to put it down my blouse if they caught me. Now at that time I wasn’t exactly terrified of snakes but they did startle me and the idea of a snake down my neck was what was terrifying. As well as being caught and held down by the group of boys.

I ran and sought refuge in the nearest building---a crematorium. The caretaker found me on the lowest floor huddled in a corner. A kind older man, he coaxed me out of my hiding place and made sure I got safely home although I have no memory of how that happened.

I digress: In the 1950’s when boys did things like chasing you, grabbing at your breasts, flipping up your skirt (yes, we had dress codes so no pants except on special days), etc., the standard adult phrase was “Boys will be boys.” “Just ignore them.” Or the worst was “What did you do?” as if we girls wanted this harassment.

From that time on until I was in my 30’s the sight of a snake was terrifying and I’d shriek, throw the book/magazine away from me and often burst into tears. Needless to say over twenty years had not dimmed the terror.

Rather than go into more detail about major traumatic events involving snakes, I want to share with you what fixed me.

NLP and Me: Again, the details are hazy as to time and exact place, a normal aspect of traumatic events. I know I was in my 30’s, probably mid-thirties and was looking at various therapeutic models. I knew some people who were studying NLP, neuro-linguistic programming. I’d read some books and was intrigued with the concept that we are wired in certain ways and if we understand that wiring, we can understand other people (and ourselves) better.

I was invited to a demonstration of how NLP worked. After discussing the theory and showing overheads or maybe it was a video, the presenter asked for volunteers.

I raised my hand.

And, mine was the only hand raised.

I was led through a kind of remote viewing process of that fateful day in elementary school.

Since that day, although I’m not going to the reptile house at zoos, petting snakes, etc. I have a detached curiousness about them.

The Universe Has A Sense of Humor Add to that when I went through a ceremony to identify my totem animal, snake was one of them.

Although none of my characters have phobias, they all do have power animals although no one has snake or snowy owl (my second totem animal). You can learn more about power animals, totems and the earth-based spirituality in my books.

You can find my books at your favorite e-book vendor as well as through my website and Windtree Press. 

Print books are available at Jan’s Paperbacks in Beaverton, OR and Arte Soleil in Portland, OR. You can get the street addresses from my website. 

And be sure to ask your library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshley.net

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

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